So yesterday I was emailing with a dear writer friend – Mellie Dickerson. Apparently, I’m the only one who calls her Mellie. I could have sworn I read people calling her that, but I guess not ;). She said it was okay though :D. Makes me feel special.

So we were talking about a bunch of writerly stuff as well as life in general stuff. And she mentioned something about one of the down sides of being a published author. It brought to mind something I’d read earlier in the day.

See… NTRWA’s Great Expectations contest had their early bird deadline yesterday. I entered Suburban Straightjacket and am contemplating entering Finding Mr. Write but that means I need to get the first 25 pages all shiny and polished up. I reread through the first pages, cringing as I did so. The placeholder names [who has a friend named “Friend3”? I mean really!], the wrong destinations and wrong mode of travel [since later needs dictated a change in both].

But then there was this moment of clarity. Hero [Jeremiah] and heroine [Dorrie] are at a local writer’s meeting a few weeks before the big national conference and their group is critiquing each other’s synopses and one sheets etc. Things they’d show to interested agents and editors while at the conference.

I read the snippet below, especially the part in italics, and I thought Wow! Did I write that?! I’m guessing that… yes, I wrote it, but let’s face it. It was divinely inspired. That’s the only answer, because it’s something I struggle daily to remember.

Beth followed with her one page synopsis then Jeremiah showed us his one sheet.

It was… much better than mine. To the point I wanted to cry. How was I supposed to compete with something like that?

You’re not, the still small voice inside me said. You write what I give you to write, the words come from Me. You aren’t competing against anyone – not when it comes to My will.

I knew the voice was right. I wasn’t competing against anyone as long as I was doing what God wanted me to. And Jeremiah and I wrote very different genres. Even if it was a competition we wouldn’t be competing against each other.

I’m not competing against Mellie*. Or even Janice Thompson or Kaye Dacus or Jenny B Jones or any of the other writers of incredible romantic comedies. In fact, I’m not competing against anyone.

All I have to do is my very best. That’s all I can do anyway. This path is in God’s hands. If and when I get published, it’s because it’s in God’s timing.

I still need to learn my craft and get my name out there through networking and so on. I can’t just sit at home and wait for the phone to ring if no one knows I’ve written a book.

So… I’m going to keep writing what He tells me to, what I have to write [and yes, I know how weird that could sound to those without the writing ‘gene’]. I’ll edit and revise and edit and revise some more then send out queries and proposals while starting on the next project until the right one, the one God ordained before the beginning of the earth**, hits the right desk at the right time.

In fact, we stayed home today because Maggie and I weren’t feeling all that hot. But I’m feeling better now and should probably try to add some words to Finding Mr. Write. It’ll never get done if I don’t.

*For the record, I was never felt I was in competition with Mellie. We write very, very different genres ;).

**NIV, Psalm 139:16 – your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.